Last night was a night that for various reasons lent itself to watching a 45 minute documentary on “Benidorm.” I’m not sure I would recommend this activity—“Benidorm” itself, absolutely, but the behind-the-scenes was mainly interesting insofar as you hear the actor who plays Mateo speaking in his own voice, which is (shades of “Fawlty Towers” and Manuel) a British accent. It’s apparently very noticeable (as per YouTube commenters) that the actors playing northerners (and quite convincingly, say the commenters) are in fact posh and from the south of England instead, but these are subtleties either lost on me or (let’s be honest, I have watched a LOT of British television, much of it set in the north) not keeping me up at night.
The point of this post, however, is that show creator Derren Litten’s next show after “Benidorm” ended with Season 10 in 2018 (a conclusion I’m a few eps away from) was one called “Scarborough,” available on Britbox Canada, and starring, among others… Stephanie Cole! Diana Trent from “Waiting For God”!!!
I am one episode in, and see that there are some other Benidormers in the cast, and am certainly holding out hope that Janine Duvitski aka Jane from “Waiting For God” might make an appearance. (I know a moment on imdb could answer this but pandemic life is short of interesting surprises.) If ever a show were made for me, without anticipating anyone like me as its target audience.
In the opening scene, Cole’s character is sitting in an armchair, trying to decide what to watch on television. There’s nothing good on. It’s on the one hand mundane (if funny, given the creator and actress), but on the other, surreal. Diana does exactly this in one of the Season 4 eps of “Waiting For God,” sitting with Tom and trying to find something on TV that isn’t an Australian soap opera. And in that scene, from nearly 30 years prior, Diana is supposed to be in her 70s, which Cole herself is now, as well as in “Scarborough,” whose only season ran in 2019.
The age thing with Diana… I can’t decide what to do with this. Cole is perfect as Diana. I do not in any way fault the casting choice itself. But there’s something disconcerting about the fact that a woman in her early 50s could so convincingly read as 70-something, not just through (excellent) acting, but because on screen, any woman over 30 may as well be 90. (Or not: the elderly women characters on “Benidorm” are not played by teenagers, and appear in bathing suits, get married, even have polyamorous trysts.) Tom, Diana’s counterpart and eventual boyfriend, is meant to be the same age, and played by an actor of that age. Theirs does not read as what one would call an age-gap relationship.
Seeing Cole actually in her 70s is a reminder of exactly how young Diana was, and then it’s hard not to think that part of what allowed the character to play this exceptionally vibrant (and violent!) elderly woman was that the actress playing her on some level came across as a dgaf middle-aged woman—a “Karen,” in a good way, if you will—and not as someone at all old and frail.
As for “Scarborough” itself, more thoughts, perhaps, once I’m further into it. Thus far I found myself mainly stuck on the non-pandemicness of the quite recent times depicted, desperately wishing I could go to a hair salon upon reaching a scene with some (also elderly) women getting their hair done. (Salons have not been open in Toronto since I think November.) Then the episode reaches the part where one of the women dies on the toilet, newspaper beside her, and the glamor diminished slightly, I will admit.
(images: Britbox screenshots, naturally)